reasonableness

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈrizənəbəlnəs/ UK /ˈriːzənəbəlnəs/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
the quality of being fair, moderate, and in accordance with reason

The judge admired the reasonableness of the proposed settlement.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the quality of being fair,... fairness rationalitysensiblenessmoderation reasonability sanity

Opposites

unreasonableness irrationalityextremism

Word family

Related forms reasonable reason reasonably

Etymology

From reasonable + -ness; reasonable from Old French raisonable, from Latin rationabilis, from ratio ('reckoning, reason').

rationabilis Latin ratio Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

# reasonableness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈrizənəbəlnəs
**IPA (UK):** ˈriːzənəbəlnəs

## Meanings
1. the quality of being fair, moderate, and in accordance with reason

## Examples
- The judge admired the reasonableness of the proposed settlement.

## Synonyms
- fairness
- rationality
- sensibleness
- moderation
- reasonability
- sanity

## Antonyms
- unreasonableness
- irrationality
- extremism

## Related Forms
- reasonable
- reason
- reasonably

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: rationabilis
- Root: ratio

## Etymology
From reasonable + -ness; reasonable from Old French raisonable, from Latin rationabilis, from ratio ('reckoning, reason').

## AI Etymology
Reasonableness comes from reasonable + -ness; reasonable from Old French raisonable, from Latin rationabilis, from ratio ('reckoning, reason'). The historical chain includes Latin rationabilis and Latin ratio. Older glosses in the chain include "reckoning, reason", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, reasonableness is best read as compound, suffixal formation, and borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "the quality of being fair, moderate, and in accordance with reason". related forms include reasonable, reason, and reasonably. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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reasonableness

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